BLACKOAK: The Ice That Would Not Let Go — What the Sailor Who Found the Franklin Note Couldn't Put Down
Blackoak the Adventures por Myia Hanson and Jeremy Hanson
E11
21 abr 2026
44:51
Notas del episodio
BLACKOAK: The Ice That Would Not Let Go — What the Sailor Who Found the Franklin Note Couldn't Put Down
In May of 1847, someone stood at a desk inside HMS Terror — beset in Arctic ice for eight months — and wrote an official Admiralty form reporting that all was well. The ships had been locked in pack ice since September. Three men had died over the winter on Beechey Island. But the form was filled in with military precision, properly dated, properly signed, and placed in a cairn on King William Island.In April of 1848, someone stood at the same desk and wrote around the margins of that same form. Twenty-four men dead. Sir John Franklin dead. Ships abandoned. One hundred and five survivors departing for Back River. The handwriting is still formal. The document is still properly dated and signed. The gap between those two entries — eleven months, twenty-four deaths, the transformation of empire's most celebrated expedition into a death march — is written in the white space between two sets of ink.That note was found in 1859 by a search party from the Fox. Samuel Bent, a common sailor on that expedition, was among the men who searched King William Island. He was not there when the cairn was opened. But he was there for the two weeks after. He was there for the boats.In this episode of BLACKOAK: The Adventures, the ancient sentient tankard carries an account received in a Wapping tavern in November of 1859 — from a man who had stood in a boat full of silver plate and loaded guns and books and two men who had been dead for eleven years. Who had understood, standing there, what the silver meant — and why carrying it made the only possible sense to men who were dying. Who had walked the shore and found what the shore had to say about what men do when the other options are gone. And who came back to England and could not put it down with anyone who needed it to mean something specific.Bent needed somewhere that received weight without requiring resolution. He found it.HMS Erebus was located in 2014. HMS Terror in 2016. Both ships are preserved in remarkable condition on the floor of the Arctic Ocean. Drawers closed. Glass intact. The objects 129 men brought from England in 1845 still inside.The ice eventually let go. It was too late for the men. But it let go.BLACKOAK: The Adventures is a historical mystery podcast narrated by an ancient sentient tankard forged from the wreckage of a warship off the Carolina coast. It has spent centuries in rooms where the weight of what happened couldn't be set down anywhere else. Every episode delivers history from the inside. Premium cinematic audio storytelling. Produced by Fuzzy Life Studios.
In May of 1847, someone stood at a desk inside HMS Terror — beset in Arctic ice for eight months — and wrote an official Admiralty form reporting that all was well. The ships had been locked in pack ice since September. Three men had died over the winter on Beechey Island. But the form was filled in with military precision, properly dated, properly signed, and placed in a cairn on King William Island.In April of 1848, someone stood at the same desk and wrote around the margins of that same form. Twenty-four men dead. Sir John Franklin dead. Ships abandoned. One hundred and five survivors departing for Back River. The handwriting is still formal. The document is still properly dated and signed. The gap between those two entries — eleven months, twenty-four deaths, the transformation of empire's most celebrated expedition into a death march — is written in the white space between two sets of ink.That note was found in 1859 by a search party from the Fox. Samuel Bent, a common sailor on that expedition, was among the men who searched King William Island. He was not there when the cairn was opened. But he was there for the two weeks after. He was there for the boats.In this episode of BLACKOAK: The Adventures, the ancient sentient tankard carries an account received in a Wapping tavern in November of 1859 — from a man who had stood in a boat full of silver plate and loaded guns and books and two men who had been dead for eleven years. Who had understood, standing there, what the silver meant — and why carrying it made the only possible sense to men who were dying. Who had walked the shore and found what the shore had to say about what men do when the other options are gone. And who came back to England and could not put it down with anyone who needed it to mean something specific.Bent needed somewhere that received weight without requiring resolution. He found it.HMS Erebus was located in 2014. HMS Terror in 2016. Both ships are preserved in remarkable condition on the floor of the Arctic Ocean. Drawers closed. Glass intact. The objects 129 men brought from England in 1845 still inside.The ice eventually let go. It was too late for the men. But it let go.BLACKOAK: The Adventures is a historical mystery podcast narrated by an ancient sentient tankard forged from the wreckage of a warship off the Carolina coast. It has spent centuries in rooms where the weight of what happened couldn't be set down anywhere else. Every episode delivers history from the inside. Premium cinematic audio storytelling. Produced by Fuzzy Life Studios.
- Franklin Expedition mystery
- HMS Erebus Terror found
- Franklin Northwest Passage
- Victory Point note Franklin
- Franklin Expedition cannibalism
- HMS Erebus discovery 2014
- HMS Terror found 2016
- Franklin lead poisoning
- Beechey Island graves Franklin
- Captain Crozier Franklin
- Arctic exploration history
- Franklin Expedition podcast
- BLACKOAK podcast
- Fuzzy Life Studios
- King William Island Franklin
- What happened to the Franklin Expedition
- Where were HMS Erebus and Terror found
- What was in the Victory Point note Franklin Expedition
- Why did the Franklin Expedition fail
- Franklin Expedition lead poisoning tinned food
- Did the Franklin Expedition survivors resort to cannibalism
- What did the Inuit know about the Franklin Expedition
- Franklin Expedition boats found with silver plate
- Who was Captain Francis Crozier Franklin Expedition
- Beechey Island graves Franklin Expedition bodies
- What was found on HMS Terror when it was discovered
- How many men died on the Franklin Expedition
- Why did Franklin's men carry silver plate while dying
- Franklin Northwest Passage 1845 histo